Furniture which may be converted between various configurations is highly desirable since one piece of furniture may serve several functions. Such “convertible furniture” is, in and of itself, notoriously well known as evidenced from the following list of patent publications: U.S. Pat. No. 3,008,782 to Osborne; U.S. Pat. No. 3,233,942 to Creutz; U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,719 to Haukedahl; U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,845 to Sooker; U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,856 to Danin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,927 to Lombardo; U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,545 to Liao; DE 3242148A1 to Gerhard; and WO 9104694A1 to Hollingsworth. Such convertible furniture is highly desirable since it is capable of accommodating the needs and/or desires of the user.
Recently, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,716 to Thomas (the entire content of which is expressly incorporated hereinto by reference), there has been disclosed a novel furniture frame having components which may be manipulated and/or reoriented so that it assumes various furniture configurations. Specifically, the furniture frame according to the '716 patent includes a number of vertical and horizontal tubular sections which are joined to one another so as to form side frames which are separated latitudinally by at least one horizontally disposed cross-support member. A number (e.g., four) detachable L-shaped leg members may be inserted telescopically into the vertical or horizontal tubular components of the side frames and fixed in position, if desired, with the use of conventional pegs, screws, bolts, pins or like fixing elements.
While such prior convertible furniture proposals serve their intended function of providing a single piece of furniture having multiple purposes, some improvement is still needed. For example, it would be highly desirable if a furniture frame could be provided so that any form of furniture may be constructed in dependence upon the user's desires simply by manipulating and/or reoriented one or more components of the frame without necessarily employing securing elements and which can be constructed of wood. It is towards fulfilling such a need that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in modular convertible furniture systems which include a pair of similar open-ended box frame assemblies which are nestable one within the other. A pair of slotted support rails are attached pivotally at respective opposing corners of one of the box frame assemblies so as to be movable between raised and lowered positions. When in a raised position, the rails provide a support for a solid board plank thereby becoming a seat back (e.g., for a chair, love seat, or sofa-type arrangement). When the rails are in a lowered position substantially parallel to the ground, the two box frame assemblies may be oriented back-to-back so as to provide a support for a mattress thereby converting the structure into a bed arrangement, for example. The box frame assemblies can be positioned on different sides and ends thereby allowing formation of tables and/or shelving as may be desired.
These and other aspects and advantages will become more apparent after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.